E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Higden, monk of Chester, says: She was the fayre daughter of Walter, Lord Clifford, concubine of Henry II., and poisoned by Queen Elianor, A.D. 1177. Henry made for her a house of wonderfull working, so that no man or woman might come to her. This house was named Labyrinthus, and was wrought like unto a knot in a garden called a maze. But the queen came to her by a clue of thredde, and so dealt with her that she lived not long after. She was buried at Godstow, in an house of nunnes, with these verses upon her tombe:
Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda:
Non redolet, sed olet, quæ redolerë solet.
Here Rose the graced, not Rose the chaste, reposes;
The smell that rises is no smell of roses.
E. C. B.
Rosamond Clifford is introduced by Sir Walter Scott in two of his novelsThe Talisman and Woodstock.